Dennisha Page, a Rutgers junior from Wilson, annihilated her 200 PR Friday in the prelims of the Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Ind., and leads all qualifiers into Sunday’s final.
Page ran 23.08 with legal wind and missed the school record by 1-100th of a second. The school record of 23.07 was set at the 2016 Big Ten Championships in Lincoln, Neb., by Williamstown’s Gabrielle Farquharson.
So South Jersey sprinters now hold the top-two spots on the all-time Rutgers 200 list. Bordentown’s Andrea Conaway (23.95 in 1988), Egg Harbor’s Ajae Alvarez-Tyler (24.19 last year) are No. 6 and 8.
Page’s previous PR was a 23.19 just two weeks ago in a meet in Jacksonville. She also ran 23.48 and 23.46 last month. Coming into April, her 200 PR was 23.61 indoors at Clemson in January, so that’s now dropped more than half a second.
The only South Jersey women to run faster than Page are Olympic gold medalist English Gardner, who ran 22.62 in 2013, and Farquharson with her 23.07. Unless I’m missing someone, I have Page tied for No. 8 in state history at 23.08:
22.37… Me’Lisa Barber [Montclair], June 26, 2005, Carson, Calif.
22.39 … Sydney McLaughlin [Union Catholic], March 29, 2018, Gainesville, Fla.
22.62 … English Gardner [Eastern], May 12, 2013, Los Angeles
22.63 … Wenda Vereen [Trenton], April 17, 1993, Walnut, Calif.
22.73 … Mikele Barber [Montclair], June 23, 2007, Indianapolis, Ind.
23.07 … Shavon Greaves [Lakewood], April 2, 2010, Gainesville, Fla.
23.07 … Gabrielle Farquharson [Williamstown], May 15, 2016, Lincoln, Neb.
23.08 … Aleah Williams [Montclair], May 19, 2003, Austin, Texas
23.08 … Dennisha Page [Wilson], May 12, 2023, Bloomington, Ind.
23.24 … Amandi Rhett [Moorestown], June 10, 2004, Austin, Texas
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 